Who is Morgan Osborne?
By Aaron Blevins, 10/25/2012
Questions arise over candidate in 37th District Race
Morgan Osborne is running against Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-California) for the 37th Congressional District — that much is certain. What’s unclear is, who is Osborne and why is he running.
He was one of three write-in candidates to challenge Bass, garnering 36 votes in the Presidential Primary Election. The two other write-in candidates — Libertarian Sean McGary and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Adam Shbeita — received a total of 12 votes.
Multiple attempts to reach Osborne for comment were unsuccessful at both phone numbers supplied by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. One number was to a cell phone, and the other was listed to Morgan Obsorne & Co. in La Jolla.
Originally, his address was listed as being in La Jolla; however, it has been updated to 2020 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 690, in Washington, D.C., an office building owned by George Washington University. Officials with the university could not specify who occupies the suite by deadline.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, candidates only need to live in the district in which they are running on the first day they take office.
Bass said she doesn’t know anything about Obsorne, aside from his address and his age, 28. She also doesn’t know why he’s running or why he got 36 people to vote for him, but she speculated that Obsorne’s candidacy may serve as a placeholder for political action committees.
“There are these super-PACs that go after incumbents who are perceived as being safe,” Bass said. “I think that people got mad when they saw I didn’t have an opponent. That’s the only thing I could think up logically. Now, he’s not registering any money, but a super-PAC would not [show up] in his account.”
She said a super-PAC could be trying to keep her from donating money to Democrats in close races, and instead spend it on her re-election campaign.
“The reason you do that in this game is … to hurt someone’s reputation and, two, to make me spend money on myself versus giving my money away. …I raise money for other people, as opposed to spending money on myself,” Bass added.
Representatives of the California Republican Party said they do not know much about Osborne, except that he was a write-in candidate. Candidates only need approval to appear on the ballot as Republicans if they want an endorsement by the party, according to representatives.
Tags | 37th Congressional District, Karen Bass, Morgan Osborne
